A VET repeatedly destroyed a swans' nest at a beauty spot because it was interfering with his fishing, a court was told.

Timothy Briggs, who practices with Nantwich Veterinary Group, is charged with sabotaging the nest of the protected species on two occasions in March last year.

The swans had been nesting near pools at Tilston Bank trout farm, near Beeston, for the past three years, Chester Magistrates' Court was told.

Rhys Rowlands, prosecuting, said Briggs had attacked the nest in the twilight hours by kicking it into the water while the swans were in the pools.

Briggs, 49, of Bunbury Lane, Bunbury, ran a fishing syndicate at the trout farm and the nest had become a nuisance to anglers, Mr Rowlands told the hearing which is expected to last three days.

He said: 'The pools were visited by swans who would spend winter on the canal and move to nest in pools divided by a causeway. The swans built a nest in the middle of that causeway and in doing so created a an obstacle for those seeking to fish on it.'

In a letter to the police, Briggs, who denies the charges, had admitted cordoning off the spot with fencing tape in what he described as a 'wholly passive' attempt to discourage them from nest-building.

Mr Rowlands said: 'Having failed with the fencing tape, he resorted to kicking the nest and damaging it in the hope that it would succeed where the fencing tape had failed.'

It is claimed Briggs' actions had been witnessed by two residents, Brian Mulloch and Sheila Pugh, who regularly walked the stretch of water between the Chester-Crewe railway line and the Shropshire Union Canal.

John Gallagher, defending, questioned Mr Mulloch's account, suggesting he had discussed his story with Mrs Pugh.

Mr Gallagher also questioned Mr Mulloch about what had happened to the paper on which he claimed to have noted down a description of Briggs and the registration of his car.

Mr Mulloch replied that he had left the note in his coal shed and that his cat had been sick on it.